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How to give constructive feedback

We love to give advice, especially the unsolicited kind. But there are many times when your role at work involves giving feedback to your team, colleagues or superiors that may not always be positive. How do you navigate this extremely sensitive issue and offer honest feedback without ruffling feathers? Here’s how:

Before you start offering feedback, make sure you’ve read through the report with a fine toothed comb and have had time to think about it.

You could start the discussion by asking for the opinions of your team before you start your feedback. This will help you gauge how your team evaluates themselves.

Begin your feedback by listing out positive observations. A lot of people find it easy to criticise but praise is difficult. Make a conscious effort to list the good points.

When you praise, be specific. Elaborate on what you mean is `nice’ `good’ and `fantastic.’ Instead of throwing these empty words in the air, refer to specific instances when someone from the team excelled. This can be a good example for others.

Be generous and genuine with your praise. Don’t be stingy with praise and generous with criticism.

Don’t get personal with your feedback.

When it comes to pointing out things that you didn’t like, list them out and say why you didn’t like them. Be clear, to the point and don’t get nasty or angry about what went wrong.

Suggest a way forward. End on a note of hope that the wrongs can be corrected. For eg. `This is how we should be doing A, B, C…’’

Don’t forget to use humour in your feedback and smile often to make it less ominous.